Being the amazing, true-to-life adventures and (very likely) misadventures of a writer who seeks to take his education, activism and seemingly boundless energy to North Minneapolis, (NoMi) to help with a process of turning a rapidly revitalizing neighborhood into something approaching Urban Utopia. I am here to be near my child. From 02/08 to 06/15 this blog pushed free speech to the envelope, so others could take heart and speak unafraid. Email me at hoffjohnw@gmail.com

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Thoughts On The "Honey Bee" Gas Station Murder...

Photo and blog post by John Hoff

I try to avoid all the gas stations in North Minneapolis, with the exception of the Holiday Station on Washington Ave. N. For some reason I feel safe at that gas station. Every now and then when my gas gauge is really low, I might find myself pulling into the Old Colony gas station on Washington Ave. N., which everybody in this neighborhood calls "Honey Bee" or "Bee Hive." Hardly anybody calls the gas station by its actual name, Old Colony.

A couple weeks ago I needed fuel, and I pulled into Old Colony. My son was with me in my vehicle. Right then, some no account walked toward my vehicle to offer to wash the windshield. I gave him a slightly hard look and a slight shake of the head, to avoid "dissing" him but to let him know...
...he shouldn't even THINK of walking up to my vehicle. To his credit, the no account walked the other way.

But that wasn't good enough. I wanted to find a gas station manager and find out why he/she was letting some no account hang out in the parking lot, instead of telling him to leave. I walked toward a short distance toward the gas station and then realized...the doors were locked. Customers were buying gas through a secured window. I used a gas card to buy my fuel, thought about calling the corporate headquarters of Old Colony, then just gave up on the notion. I told my son what I was thinking. I told him something like, "I really SHOULD call their corporate headquarters, but you know what? I can't be responsible for EVERYTHING and we have places to go..."

A few days later...

Bang. Bang. Bang. Yet another shooting in North Minneapolis, this time at Old Colony.

I am so sick of stores in North Minneapolis that let no accounts just hang around. This creates a perception of lawlessness, a feeling "anything can happen here." This time it was Old Colony, next time, who knows? Blame can be laid at the feet of the shooter, OF COURSE, but Old Colony is not entirely innocent due to the thuggy environment they have allowed to persist at that particular gas station.

Why should the vendors who risk their investments to provide services in Nomi be any better than our local government who allow these "no accounts" to wander the streets knowing that a great many of them need psychiatric help?

The government provides rent, utilities, and food subsidies and conveniently looks the other way as they are warehoused in communities like this instead of limiting sub-standard rental properties that attract them. This keeps the trash out of the bedroom communities.

Anon 10:46 said "The government provides rent, utilities, and food subsidies and conveniently looks the other way as they are warehoused in communities like this instead of limiting sub-standard rental properties that attract them."

BINGO. Thank you. I'll even take this argument one step further (and not in the "faux revitalizer" voice of Anon 7:35, either) and suggest that a high concentration of Section 8 households isn't a situation conducive to people getting off of Section 8. While it definitely is true that working people sometimes need Section 8 to make ends meet or to get back on their feet(and thank God that assistance exists to help people in this situation), often the heads of Section 8 households do not work, have never worked, and have no intention of looking for work, EVER. All that a concentration of these households does is ensure that a generation of children grows up believing that being unemployed is "normal," and not a temporary calamity.

You hit the nail on the head. The people who live in the "bedroom communities" have far more political power than anyone in NoMi. Even if Don Samuals and Linda Higgins had a baby and Johnny Northside did the baptism, that baby would still have less political power than your average Maple Grove or Woodbury politician.

You see, this is how the system is designed to work. Regular people don't want to live with the types that populate NoMi. But they're here and we need to keep them where they don't cause us as much trouble.

This is the whole purpose of the ghetto and, thus, you have your NoMi.

(Try to change it all you want, the most you'll ever do is apply a little lipstick on a pig.)

Rumor has it that North Minneapolis is similar to a self cleaning oven.If there was some guarantee that all these cowardly PUNKS did was shoot each other dead i would say that's pretty funny....but it's not.Innocent citizens die at the hands of these assholes all too often.I will have to admit that there is a sense of relief when i find out that one piece of trash took out the other(Trash taking out trash is the same as one camel leading another camel to another camel to prove that he's actually a damn camel)That is the screaming sunday morning call to all of you that deny that your relative is in a gang.I will tell you straight out that until certain elements in society quit making bullshit excuses and quit lying about the extent of their friends and family gang affiliations this CRAP will never change.P.S.... There is a rumor out there claiming that some group from Shitcago is getting a shitload of money to do something that our fellow community leaders have been doing for free.BULLSHIT!!!! DO NOT TRY TO COPY SHITCAGO ANY LONGER YOU F#@#&NG IDIOTS. Boathead wishes everyone a safe day.

It is indeed unfortunate that my mentality has come to that. However, I didn't move to Nomi to become a social activist or an unpaid member of the 4th precinct. These thugs infringe on everybody's quality of life, and one can only have their blood pressure spike so high before saying fuck 'em. What has helped my sanity is to correlate gun fire in Nomi in the same context as hearing a bell when an angel gets its wings (it is tragic when innocent people get hit though).

Before you get all sanctimonious in regards to this statement please review the Third Noble Truth of Buddhism: Eliminate desire, eliminate suffering. This is simply my practice of it. Furthermore, I don't have the hours in the day nor the resources to solve this problem, it is too systemic. I at least, however, try to be social aware enough to try and vote for people who may have the answers. Other than that I have to maintain the same humor as an ER Doctor just to have piece of mind in this neighborhood. So in summary, it's not that I don't care, I just need a coping mechanism to deal with it.

I propose we take all the guns that the MPD buys off the street, load them and stack them in a big pile in the meadow off sunset hill in Theo Wirth. Then, we let all the fuck heads come together and pick two guns each. We wall off the meadow and tell them no one leaves so long as there's anyone standing. When it's done, we let that last person walk out, if he can. As he walks out we arrest him for being a fuck head and lock him up for the rest of his life.

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM seems the creek killing was Plymouth oriented murder "Gang style as well" 3-4 of them. To Anon's that don't get it you think a street sign stops folks from peeing on your bushes?

Here is a solution that would make crime decrease substantially - make the MN and local government programs that give away money or food worse than any other state in the U.S. People will figure it out and move out of town. In addition to that the taxpayers would save money for something that could be useful to the economy.

If there were no section 8 housing in NOMI, there would be no section renters there. I can guarantee that the crime rate associated with Section 8 rentals is sigificantly higher than non subsidized housing.

Folwell Fox i will ask you one question.If it happens to be your mother who turns out to be the 31st victim then i guess by your standards we won't have to pay to have the B#### incarcerated either?You are not a fox but rather a weasel.